Wednesday,
Armenian Policy Towards EU ‘Unchanged’
• Tatevik Lazarian
France - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses the European
Parliament in Strasbourg, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s latest calls for closer ties between Armenia
and the European Union do not herald any major change in his government’s
foreign policy, senior Armenian officials insisted on Wednesday.
Pashinian told the European Parliament on Tuesday that “Armenia is ready to get
closer to the EU as much as the EU finds it possible.” He also took aim at
Russia, underscoring a deepening rift between Moscow and Yerevan.
Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovannisian downplayed the geopolitical
implications of Pashinian’s speech, saying that the premier only reaffirmed
Armenia’s commitment to the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement
(CEPA) with the EU signed in 2017.
“Our relations with the EU have always been aimed at promoting reforms, human
rights, the country’s transformation,” Hovannisian told journalists.
“The EU remains Armenia’s most important partner in terms of reforms, and this
message only reaffirmed our policy of deepening and expanding our relations with
the EU as much as possible,” he said. “There is no sensational news in the
context of our relations with the EU.”
Arman Yeghoyan, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on European
integration, similarly said that the CEPA will continue to form the basis of
Yerevan’s relationship with the 27-nation bloc in the coming years.
“We still have room for developing the scale and quality of our relations with
the EU within the existing legal framework,” Yeghoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
In his speech, Pashinian did not indicate a desire to seek Armenia’s eventual
membership in the EU or negotiate another alternative to the CEPA. He made clear
last week that he has no plans to pull his country out of the Russian-led
defense and trade blocs. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov publicly noted
that.
Still, Pashinian launched thinly veiled attacks on Russia when he addressed the
EU legislature in Strasbourg. In particular, he accused Armenia’s “security
allies” of using the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict to try to topple him. This
prompted a stern rebuke from Moscow on Wednesday.
Armen Rustamian, an Armenian opposition parliamentarian, deplored what he
described as Pashinian’s conflicting foreign policy statements and lack of a
cohesive foreign policy strategy.
“One day he sounds pro-Russian, the other day pro-Western … This way we will
only lose all our friends,” claimed Rustamian.
Karabakh Suspects Freed During Exodus To Armenia
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Nagorno-Karabakh - An abandoned vehicle is parked in front of a closed shop in
Stepanakert during an Azeri government organized media trip, October 2, 2023.
About a dozen individuals accused or convicted of various crimes in
Nagorno-Karabakh were set free late last month as the region’s ethnic Armenian
population fled to Armenia following the Azerbaijani military offensive, a
Karabakh official said on Wednesday.
Armenian law-enforcement authorities did not arrest and transfer them to the
country’s prisons or detention centers. They now claim to be unaware of the
whereabouts of these Karabakh Armenians. Six of them had been charged with
spying for Azerbaijan.
Karabakh’s sole prison is located in the town of Shushi (Shusha) captured by the
Azerbaijani army at the end of the 2020 war. Its inmates were transported to
Armenian prisons after the six-week war. The same was also true for subsequently
arrested Karabakh suspects.
Such transfers became impossible when Baku blocked the Lachin corridor last
December, forcing the authorities in Stepanakert to open a makeshift detention
center. According to a senior Karabakh law-enforcement official who has also
taken refuge in Yerevan, the facility housed one man convicted of theft and ten
others accused of high treason and other crimes when the Azerbaijani offensive
began on September 19.
The official said that the authorities set them free on September 28 at the
height of exodus. “Keeping them locked up there was no longer right,” the
official told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General declined to comment on the fate of
these individuals and the six spy suspects in particular. It is thus not clear
whether the Armenian authorities regard them as a national security threat and,
if so, are keeping track of them and planning to take them into custody.
Armenia Becoming ‘Another Ukraine,’ Says Moscow
Russia - A view shows the Kremlin in Moscow, April 20, 2020.
Russia drew parallels between Nikol Pashinian and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy on Wednesday, responding to the Armenian prime minister’s fresh
criticism of Moscow voiced at the European Parliament.
Addressing the European Union’s legislative body in Strasbourg on Tuesday,
Pashinian accused Armenia’s “security allies” of using the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict to try to oust him from power. Also, he again blamed Russian
peacekeepers for the mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population that
followed Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 attack on the region.
Russia’s main state news agency, TASS, cited a “high-ranking source in Moscow”
as strongly condemning Pashinian’s speech.
“We regard Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s speech in the European
Parliament on October 17 as absolutely irresponsible and provocative, especially
with regard to Russia and Russian-Armenian relations,” said the unnamed source.
“We see how they are trying to turn Armenia into Ukraine No. 3 -- if we consider
Moldova as Ukraine No. 2 -- and Pashinian is following in the footsteps of
Volodymyr Zelenskiy by leaps and bounds.”
Tensions between Moscow and Yerevan already ran high prior to his speech,
aggravated by the Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh acquiesced by the Russians.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Pashinian late last month of seeking to
ruin Russian-Armenian relations and reorient his country towards the West.
Earlier in September, it deplored “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by
Yerevan.
Pashinian insisted on October 10 that Armenia still has no plans to leave the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) or other Russian-led blocs.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seemed encouraged by these assurances on
October 12.
President Vladimir Putin appeared to downplay Russia’s rift with its longtime
South Caucasus ally the following day. Putin said that he and Pashinian “remain
in touch” and that he will visit Armenia again despite Yerevan’s acceptance of
jurisdiction of an international court that issued an arrest warrant for him in
March.
The Armenian parliament ratified the founding treaty of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) on October 3 despite stern Russian warnings. The move was
welcomed by the West but denounced as reckless by the Armenian opposition.
Opposition leaders say that by setting Armenia on a collision course with Russia
Pashinian is heightening the risk of another Azerbaijani attack on Armenian
territory.
Pashinian acknowledged that risk in his speech at the European Parliament. He
urged Western powers to prevent Baku from “provoking a new war in the region.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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